LA needs 90,000 trees to battle extreme heat. Will residents step up to plant them?

LOS ANGELES — In 2019, Mayor Eric Garcetti unveiled an ambitious plan to plant 90,000 trees in Los Angeles by 2021 as part of L.A.’s Green New Deal.

To accomplish this, he appointed the city’s first forest officer, Rachel Malarich, to head the Urban Forestry Division, and authorized a network of nonprofits and “community ambassadors” to aid and encourage residents in planting much-needed trees.

But more than a year after Garcetti’s deadline, it turns out that planting trees in Los Angeles is a lot more difficult than it sounds — particularly when it comes to targeting those neighborhoods most in need of tree cover.

With just over 65,000 trees planted to date, officials are finding that their reliance on city residents to plant and care for the trees comes with significant limitations: Residents in poorer neighborhoods who don’t own land can find it difficult to actually plant trees, or they encounter problems caring for a new trees during their critical three-year establishment phase.

In some areas — such as canopy barren downtown — new trees are often destroyed by vehicles or vandals